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Strangest G+ "hangout"

Hello all,

I had something bizarre happen today while in a "hangout" this morning so I thought I would share.

I got up early this morning to meet with someone on G+. Once my meeting was over, I decided to go ahead and sit Zazen before I had to wake my kids up and get them ready for school. So I started a Hangout and invited Treeleaf Zendo as I usually do when I'm siting online. I got settled on my bench and got to it. About 5 minutes in, I hear someone join. I mute my microphone (in case the kids or dogs start raising hell) and leave my speakers on (so I can hear). Usually when someone from Treeleaf joins, there is a little noise and then silence. (I don't face my computer so can't see what is going on). I guess when you invite the Treeleaf Community, it makes it "public" because the gentleman that joined me did not know what was going on. So I start hearing this running monologue in an Australian Accent. He first tries to get my attention, which I ignore thinking he'll get bored and go on to something else. Nope. He then begins, out loud, trying to figure out what it is I'm doing. You know all those thoughts that run through your head when you have an unusual experience? Well, he verbalized all of them. He commented on everything he could see. You should have heard him trying to figure what I had around my neck! (My rakusu) At one point he went on a run with the idea that it was some kind of performance art. This went on for about 10 or 15 minutes with no end in sight. I finally surrendered. I bowed, which I think startled him, and then proceeded to have a nice chat with a young man from Brisbane about what it was I was actually doing.

I spoke to someone in Ireland and Australia, all before 7AM! What an amazing world we live in! :-)

Gassho,

Shugen

As a priest in training, please take everything I say with a pinch of salt

Recently, I have had people drop in that don't seem to be members of the _Tree leaf Community. I think you are right about community hangouts now being public

Sent from my Note 2 using Tapatalk4

I noticed this Saturday that, when I tried to open the hangout and "invite people", the new interface makes "public" a default choice, and I had to unselect "public". Maybe that was the cause, in that you did not realize that you had to unselect it being a "public" open to all comers hangout.

I've had similar experiences. For several months I would make all my G+ sittings public and had a whole slew of voyeurs join. One Indian fellow would actually join almost every day. He'd never sit zazen but would just watch for about 15 minutes and then log off...then would come back the next morning. Never said anything, never replied to my "Gassho" comment. Interesting world we live in.

If I start a hangout in the Treeleaf Community and invite Treeleaf Zendo a message appears saying you have just made this hangout public. For a member of the community there does not seem to be a way to control this. Maybe someone with Admin privileges can or change this default behavior for everyone.

Very interesting. If I may ask, how do you get to the place where you see the message about the hangout being public? When I try to start a hangout from the Community page it doesn't let me select circles (even though it says I can). I only see checkboxes where I can add individuals.

As for any admin privileges that could change settings, I don't see any pertaining to hangours. One thing I did notice is that we are a "public" group which I previously thought simply meant that people could find the community. Regardless, according to the help page I found, no one outside a community should be able to see anything going on inside the community unless they are a member.

Shugen: Could you tell me how you start a hangout as well?

Gassho,
Dosho

Originally Posted by Rich

If I start a hangout in the Treeleaf Community and invite Treeleaf Zendo a message appears saying you have just made this hangout public. For a member of the community there does not seem to be a way to control this. Maybe someone with Admin privileges can or change this default behavior for everyone.

If I just invite my Treeleaf Circle, the hangout remains private.

Ordained Priest -In-TrainingPlease take what I say with a grain of salt,
especially in matters of the Dharma!

Very interesting. If I may ask, how do you get to the place where you see the message about the hangout being public? When I try to start a hangout from the Community page it doesn't let me select circles (even though it says I can). I only see checkboxes where I can add individuals.

As for any admin privileges that could change settings, I don't see any pertaining to hangours. One thing I did notice is that we are a "public" group which I previously thought simply meant that people could find the community. Regardless, according to the help page I found, no one outside a community should be able to see anything going on inside the community unless they are a member.